On 02/16/2011 04:32 PM, Jerry McAllister wrote: > On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 02:03:57PM -0800, Benjamin Smith wrote: > >> IMHO, if you are intending to install an O/S, and will need to have an >> Internet connection, you should ALWAYS have a thumb drive and another computer >> with a confirmed Internet connection before starting. The only exception to >> this rule is when installing OSX on a Mac - because they control the hardware >> and the software, you're almost always good to go out of the gate. >> >> Windows is like this, Linux/BSD/etc is the same way. > > > ???? I don't understand your assertion. > I have installed a few hundred FreeBSD systems and never used > a USB drive. The earlier machines didn't even have them. I just > stuck in the CD and booted and went merrily along. Most of the > installs were done over the net with the CD only bringing up the > sysinstall and getting the disk sliced and labeled. > > I have also done a few dozen CentOS installs without useing any flash drive. > > ////jerry > > I think his point is that if you have never done an install on this type of machine before (and so you do not know if the network card will work), you may need to provide another method to get driver files onto the machine. In that scenario (no network), a USB thumbdrive is is the easiest method to get files onto the machine. Most hard wired connections work out of the box ... many wireless cards require a 'Proprietary Firmware' that Red Hat can not distribute as GPL. Because that firmware is not in RHEL, it is not in CentOS. People seem to want CentOS to change the distro and make the wireless work out of the box ... and I wish we could, however if it is not in RHEL, it will not be in CentOS. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 253 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20110217/963e40f4/attachment-0005.sig>